Once upon a time in Social Media

It was one of those events that divided time in to two halves. One before it happened and the one after. I’d like to tell you of a time when brands first started talking to each other on social media. It was probably the best of times. You saw Amazon India ask Zomato, after the latter had changed its logo literally 5 times in the last month – was the brief to your designer #AurDikhao?

One of the reasons why #AurDikhao worked was because it was so very colloquial, so very desi and so very apt. I say apt because it sums up perfectly an Indian consumer’s knack of asking for more every time someone shows/offers them something.

Like a good American brand it is. Amazon India didn’t stop there. They went on to chirp some more. This time with Red Bull and Kanan Gill. Ah yes, if my memory serves they tweeted to Baba Sehgal too.

You also saw Snapdeal courting Freecharge on Twitter. It was sleazy, yes. We liked it nonetheless.

On came another American brand, announcing their entry into India. They were ushered in by their fellow American compatriots. Like good ol’ friends catching up at a bar in a foreign country, they chirped some more for us all to overhear.

VH1, KFC India and Budweiser India welcomed Gap India with some friendly banter. Which did seem too good to be true, if I’m honest. Though, it was happening for the first time and like all things new we embraced. Young India lapped up all the attention it was getting.